A blog by Grant Montgomery, co-founder of Family Care, a 501c3 that provides emergency services and sustained development for families on 5 continents. This site highlights the plight of 300,000 North Koreans who have fled their country due to the brutal oppression of a Stalinist North Korean regime, as well as those still living in North Korea.

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Pyongyang show vs. rural life struggle

While North Korea prepares a big show to mark the 70th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party, the daily struggles of life outside the capital –such as finding clean running water and putting nutritious food on the table year-round– pose a harsh, but largely unseen, contrast to the grand celebrations the world will see Oct. 10.

To make sure Pyongyang looks its best, extensive construction projects have considerably prettied up the capital, which is far and away the most developed city in North Korea and is even relatively comfortable for the increasingly affluent segment of its populace.

North Korean farmer tills the soil by hand

But life in the provinces, and particularly in rural areas, is quite a different story. Instead of the new high-rise apartments and bicycle lanes that have been put up in Pyongyang for the party anniversary, the people in the communities of Sinyang County, which is just 150 kilometers (100 miles) from Pyongyang (takes three hours to reach by car on mostly unpaved roads), are just now just beginning to enjoy a far more fundamental improvement in their lives …”disease-free” running water.

North Korean women cart supplies by bicycle

Elsewhere, an old woman sits outside her home scraping corn off recently harvested cobs. The dry corn will be ground into flour to make food. In the North Korean countryside, this is a common sight. Everything must be done by hand, from the fields to the home.